Thanks for Nothing (From the Files of Madison Finn, 5) (10 page)

The second e-mail was from Egg.

From: Eggaway


To: MadFinn


Subject: Project


Date: Sun 19 Nov 5:33 PM


U R gonna be so psyched. I added these noises to the
Mayflower
presentation. Now when you put the mouse on the ship, you can hear seagulls and water noises and surf. Mariah helped out. Hope that’s OK. BFN.


The final message was from Dan Ginsburg, and he’d marked it high priority.

Priority: HIGH


From: Dantheman


To: MadFinn


Subject: SUGAR


Date: Sun 19 Nov 6:09 PM


My mom just told me that Sugar was sick and might need surgery. Will you be coming to the clinic tomorrow? I know u said u might show up. I think Sugar would like to see a friend. C U in school.


Sugar the schnoodle was sick? The pooch was alone in the world, without a family to love and protect her. Madison knew Dr. Wing was the best veterinarian in Far Hills, but Madison was sadder than sad about Sugar.

She grabbed her math notebook and plopped down in her plastic purple chair. She wanted to catch up on studying so she’d be able to go to the clinic tomorrow after school. Sugar would need her.

Monday morning Madison was still feeling a little sad. She looked everywhere to find Dan before homeroom, but the halls were too busy to track him down. Science class at the end of the day couldn’t come soon enough. She’d see Dan there.

The science lab room was abuzz with chatter. Mr. Danehy wasn’t always great at keeping order in the classroom.

Madison heard the whispers but didn’t think much of it at first. Then she looked up to find an entire row of kids staring.

Staring
right at her.

Shifting in her chair, Madison tried to act casual. But people were still staring, and she didn’t know why.

“Hey, Finnster,” Hart said. He was sitting a stool away. “What’s the deal?”

Madison was
utterly
perplexed. “The
deal
?”

But Hart didn’t answer. This time, it was her lab partner, Poison Ivy Daly, who spoke up.

“Everyone says you and Dan Ginsburg are going out.”

“What?” Madison blurted. “Everyone
who
?”

“You know.” Ivy snapped her gum.
“Everyone.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Madison said. But “everyone” was still staring. And now everyone was talking.

Mr. Danehy smacked his palm on the chalkboard at the front of the room.

“Eyes on me! No talking!” he commanded.

Everyone hushed, even Madison. She was squirming in her seat.

Ivy started to laugh. Then her drones, Rose and Joan, laughed.

Mr. Danehy waved his hand in the air. “Just what is so funny, Miss Daly?”

Ivy sucked her laughs back in. “Nothing, Mr. Danehy.”

Madison bowed her head and made a wish that by some magic scientific power, Mr. Danehy would force Ivy out of her chair and out into the hallway.

She looked around.

Had everyone heard Ivy’s rumor?

Madison’s stomach lurched. Had Hart Jones even heard the gossip? What did her crush think?

“What’s the matter, Madison?” Ivy taunted in a low voice from where she was sitting. “You didn’t think anyone saw you on your ice cream date? I saw you and your boyfriend, Dan.”

Madison looked around the room again. Dan was across the room. He smiled in her direction.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Madison snapped. Her face was red-hot. Embarrassment and anger boiled inside like lava ready to burst. “He’s my FRIEND,” she said firmly, glaring at Ivy. “Not that YOU know anything about having a real friend.”

Ivy didn’t answer. She just tossed her head. “Don’t get so huffy, Madison.”

After class, Madison rushed out the door. She went directly to Mrs. Wing’s classroom, where she was supposed to meet Egg.

“Hi,” Madison said quietly. “Egg, can I ask you something?”

“Look at
this
!” he showed Madison some of the extra-special effects he’d added to the computer. The cursor was a Pilgrim hat.

“Egg … did you hear anything weird lately? About me?” Madison asked.

“Huh? What?” Egg shook his head.

Madison shrugged. “Nothing. I just heard this rumor in science class and … well … about me and Dan”

Egg laughed out loud. “Are you joking?”

“So you didn’t hear Ivy Daly spreading any rumors?” Madison asked a second time, just to be sure.

“Ivy Daly is a dork,” Egg said. “Don’t worry about it. No one ever believes her, anyway.”

Madison smiled. “Thanks, Egg. I’m really sorry for being upset.”

“That’s okay,” Egg said. “But before we practice, tell me what are we going to say again? You’re way better than me at presenting.”

The next half hour they reviewed facts and planned who would say what during the presentation. Then they went upstairs to the media center. The librarian, Mr. Books, let Egg print out a few pages with the color laser printer. He’d downloaded pictures of cartoon Pilgrims, and Madison and Egg glued the pictures on their poster of the
Mayflower.

Their run-through went
perfectly.

Madison felt very thankful to have Egg as her friend—and social studies partner.

She started a brand-new file when she got home.

Surprises


Surprises can be awful. Like the Dan gossip. How would Ivy have seen me and Dan having an ice cream cone? But surprises can be good.


1. After a week of yucky work, Egg turned up to meet me and was 100 percent prepared. Our presentation is going to be the BEST. He has special effects on the computer. He’s so good at that stuff. He even added MUSIC! We worked on the construction of the paper Mayflower together. I did lots of the work on that—even added glitter glue even if it’s not a real Pilgrim kind of thing.


2. Sugar doesn’t need surgery! Dan called to tell me that she is just going through shock or something after being rescued. I can’t wait to see her this week.


Any day now I’m expecting some kind of a surprise from Mom and Dad. They are mostly acting cool around me, but I don’t know. How do they really feel about me going with Dad? Am I hurting Mom’s feelings by picking him? Are they going to start all that arguing again?


There is still something not right about the whole thing. Life after the big D is one surprise I can never seem to figure out.


W
HEN MADISON’S ALARM WENT
off, she stayed under the covers. Her insides felt fluttery, like she was on a ride at the amusement park. She definitely didn’t want to risk eating breakfast.

Today were the extra-credit presentations.

She hoped that Egg wouldn’t be late … or forget. She wondered if Egg was nervous right now, too.

“It’s almost eight!” Mom yelled from downstairs. “You better be out of that bed!”

Madison leaped up. “Drat! Drat!”

Now she was
late.

Rushing around wasn’t the way Madison had hoped to spend the morning before her presentation. But here she was, frantically pulling on socks and sneakers and combing her hair. Even more ominous was the rain that started to pour outside. She tied her hair back into a ponytail to avoid a bad case of the frizzies.

“You’re going to do fine,” Mom reassured her. “I’ll drive you over to school today. The rain looks very bad.”

The car ride made Madison a little queasy. The orange juice Mom had made her drink was sloshing inside her empty tummy. Mom told her to take deep breaths and to relax.

Madison arrived at school a little damp, but on time. But Egg wasn’t there.

All through homeroom, Madison watched the door. But no Egg.

Egg still hadn’t appeared at the end of homeroom. Madison thought maybe he would go straight to Mrs. Belden’s classroom.

Madison sat down next to Fiona and Daisy. They looked so funny because they had dressed up in “period” costumes. Daisy wore a ratty-looking black beard and a cardboard top hat she’d obviously stapled together quickly with black construction paper. Fiona wore her hair in two braids on either side of her head.

“So you guys are Abe Lincoln and
who
?” Aimee asked them.

“You’ll see,” Fiona said, acting mysterious. “I can’t believe you forgot already. I told you last week.”

“What is the soccer ball for?” Ben the brainiac asked.

“Oh,” Daisy said. “The ball is just from morning practice. I forgot to put it into my locker.”

“Ohhhh,” Ben rolled his eyes.

“What’s your report on?” Daisy asked Ben and Aimee.

“We’re doing a report on Native Americans,” Ben said.

“Wampanoog,” Aimee added.

“Wampanoag,” he corrected her. “Sounds like frog. You better get it right in class.”

Aimee laughed. “You better not tell me what to do, Ben.” She tapped his shoulder and tossed her hair a little.

Ben turned pink. “Uh-huh.”

Madison chuckled. Maybe Aimee really did have a crush on Ben.

Once more, Madison searched the halls for Egg, but he was still nowhere to be seen.

Madison’s stomach was doing super-duper loop de loops. In thirty seconds the bell was going to ring.

Where was Egg?

Madison knew that Mrs. Belden always shut the door tight and didn’t approve of latecomers. Her skin felt all clammy with the anticipation. First she had been rushing. Now she was waiting.

“Are you okay?” Poison Ivy said to Madison. “You look a little sick. Is that sweat?”

Madison wiped her brow with one sleeve and pursed her lips. “Did you say something?” she said to Ivy. Madison was in no mood for Ivy’s poisonous comments today.

Ivy turned back to Drew. “What’s her problem?” she asked him. But Drew didn’t say a word.

Madison looked at the clock. “Do you know where Egg is?” she whispered to Drew.

“No, I dunno where he is.”

Brrrrrrring!

“Looks like someone has a problem,” Ivy taunted. Her drones giggled from a few rows back.

Madison shot Ivy a glare. “Looks like you’re the one with a problem, Ivy,” she whispered back to her enemy.

Drew laughed. Ivy was speechless.

Madison watched the classroom door. Mrs. Belden was about to close it. She had her fingers on the knob, even. But then Egg appeared!

Mrs. Belden grinned and motioned Madison over.

“What happened to you?” Madison whispered to Egg. He pulled her aside, and Madison expected to hear a long list of reasons why Egg was later than late. She expected to hear: “The entire project got mangled and I was trying to re-sort it on my computer,” or, “I deleted the
Mayflower
program by mistake,” or, “I’m sick as a dog and I don’t want to do this.”

But that wasn’t what Egg said at all.

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I was just nervous. I wanted to check the whole program again just to make sure it worked, so I went up to the media center and …”

“Forget about it,” Madison said. “We’re good to go.”

Madison could feel her heart beating. For whatever reason, the simple extra-credit report had become all-important for Madison. This was about more than the
Mayflower
and grades. This was about her and Egg working together.

“Hey, Maddie,” Egg whispered. “I gotta show you something.”

Egg showed her the giant, color poster of the
Mayflower
they had made together. Egg had pasted more smaller pictures and labels onto the different areas Madison had laid out. She’d talked about adding more detail, but they hadn’t had enough time.

“What is THAT?” Madison asked.

“I added more stuff, like you wanted.”

“Wow.” Madison was stunned. She hadn’t even known he was paying attention to anything she’d said the whole time they’d been working together on the project. “You did all that last night?”

“I know you wanted this to be really special. Besides, my sister helped me.”

Madison was happier than happy. “It is so cool.”

“I think you were right about having something to pass around and show in class. And I have my laptop inside all ready for the PowerPoint,” Egg said.

Mrs. Belden stuck her head out into the hallway. “Why don’t you two go first so you can pass out your materials and then sit down to watch the others.”

Egg and Madison walked into the class with the homemade
and
computerized
Mayflowers.
Ivy was staring. Rose was staring. Drew was staring.
Everyone
had all eyes on them. Going first was the worst. Madison could feel her heart thump. But this kind of staring was different than in science class. This was the good kind. Egg handed out the fact sheets Madison had typed up.

“Should I start?” she nervously asked.

Mrs. Belden nodded.

Madison’s dad told her she should begin the presentation with a joke. Madison knew the perfect one.

“If April showers bring May flowers, what do
May flowers
bring?”

“Pilgrims!” Dan shouted from the back.

“Like we don’t all know that joke already.” Ivy grunted. “Come on.”